"admin only mode" (disallowing normal users from using mod_ruby)

Dear mod_ruby developers,

My company (a shared hosting provider) is about to migrate from Apache 
1.3 to 2.x. We have written a couple of C modules to do custom CGI/PHP 
wrapping and dynamic mass virtual hosting and I would like to write the 
updated Apache2 modules in Ruby (or Perl, as a second choice) instead of C.

The problem is, for security reasons, we do not want to allow access to 
mod_ruby from .htaccess, as the webserver is shared and normal hosting 
users are allowed to use .htaccess.

I remember a while back suggesting something like "PerlMode normal" / 
"PerlMode adminonly" directive to the mod_perl mailing list, where in 
the "PerlMode adminonly" mode we deny all Perl* directives in .htaccess. 
Unfortunately, I didn't get any reply. But I'm sure there are many 
server admins like myself who would like the ability to write Apache 
modules in Ruby/Perl but without having to give access to Ruby/Perl 
interpreter to normal users.

The patch to do the above is simple, but I ended up doing the simpler 
thing (modifying the directives definition in mod_perl.c from OR_ALL to 
RSRC_CONF).

Now what about mod_ruby? Is there any interest to do like the above? I 
believe this will increase the usefulness of mod_ruby, especially for 
people in my situation (shared hosting). I hope the mod_ruby developers 
would at least consider something like this or perhaps something more 
general like restricting each phase from .htaccess.


Regards,
Dave